6:1 | My son, if you have put up security for your neighbor, if you have struck hands in pledge for another, |
6:2 | if you have been trapped by what you said, ensnared by the words of your mouth, |
6:3 | then do this, my son, to free yourself, since you have fallen into your neighbor's hands: Go and humble yourself; press your plea with your neighbor! |
6:4 | Allow no sleep to your eyes, no slumber to your eyelids. |
6:5 | Free yourself, like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, like a bird from the snare of the fowler. |
6:6 | Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise! |
6:7 | It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, |
6:8 | yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest. |
6:9 | How long will you lie there, you sluggard? When will you get up from your sleep? |
6:10 | A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest-- |
6:11 | and poverty will come on you like a bandit and scarcity like an armed man. |
6:12 | A scoundrel and villain, who goes about with a corrupt mouth, |
6:13 | who winks with his eye, signals with his feet and motions with his fingers, |
6:14 | who plots evil with deceit in his heart--he always stirs up dissension. |
6:15 | Therefore disaster will overtake him in an instant; he will suddenly be destroyed--without remedy. |
6:16 | There are six things the LORD hates, seven that are detestable to him: |
6:17 | haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, |
6:18 | a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, |
6:19 | a false witness who pours out lies and a man who stirs up dissension among brothers. |
6:20 | My son, keep your father's commands and do not forsake your mother's teaching. |
6:21 | Bind them upon your heart forever; fasten them around your neck. |
6:22 | When you walk, they will guide you; when you sleep, they will watch over you; when you awake, they will speak to you. |
6:23 | For these commands are a lamp, this teaching is a light, and the corrections of discipline are the way to life, |
6:24 | keeping you from the immoral woman, from the smooth tongue of the wayward wife. |
6:25 | Do not lust in your heart after her beauty or let her captivate you with her eyes, |
6:26 | for the prostitute reduces you to a loaf of bread, and the adulteress preys upon your very life. |
6:27 | Can a man scoop fire into his lap without his clothes being burned? |
6:28 | Can a man walk on hot coals without his feet being scorched? |
6:29 | So is he who sleeps with another man's wife; no one who touches her will go unpunished. |
6:30 | Men do not despise a thief if he steals to satisfy his hunger when he is starving. |
6:31 | Yet if he is caught, he must pay sevenfold, though it costs him all the wealth of his house. |
6:32 | But a man who commits adultery lacks judgment; whoever does so destroys himself. |
6:33 | Blows and disgrace are his lot, and his shame will never be wiped away; |
6:34 | for jealousy arouses a husband's fury, and he will show no mercy when he takes revenge. |
6:35 | He will not accept any compensation; he will refuse the bribe, however great it is. |
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